10 simple projects for cosy babies

I just thought I would share some images of projects from my latest book. Some of these unfortunately didn't make it to the printed copy as we had too many cute pictures! Hopefully it should be available at Rowan stockists over the next couple of weeks.

  

Winter wonderland

Whilst I am not the greatest fan of snow I have to admit it does make everything look magical. So I thought I would share a couple of pictures including some of my parents super cute dog Alfie who at all other times is almost impossible to photograph as he is so dark. 

(images courtesy of M Armstrong 2013)

I also had a short break in London where I visited the wonderful geffrye museum which I can thoroughly recommend. I also had a great evening at MEATliquor and purl london. I am afraid they were both far to dark to get any photos but the cocktails at Purl london were out of this world!

Rowan Studio 30

Last year I was lucky enough to be asked to work on Rowan Studio 30. This however was a Rowan Studio brochure with a difference its all for trendy little ones! I am really pleased with the finished results, obviously the super cute models really help! So here are a few of the projects to give you a quick taster.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I managed to finish my festive socks (Kai Mei by the super talented Cookie A) just before the festive season and managed a few days off (mostly forced by the flu I think we all suffered with over the past few weeks!)

However I have already had to through myself head first into projects for 2013. The next book in my cosy knits series has been sent to the printers and should be in stores in February and I have been designing and knitting up for probably the most exciting project I have been involved in, but unfortunately at the stage I can say no more.

I hope you all managed to have a peaceful few weeks and are already for your own exciting projects in the new year.

Warming up to the festive season

Over the past couple of weeks I have done a couple of unusual but pretty festive things.
The first was a pop up pudding club held by coco catering, held at Hagglers corner which had been transformed into a winter wonderland by orchis floral design. It was an absolute feast of puddings from sticky toffee pudding to pavlova and poached pears. The last pudding of the night was a wonderful teacup of mocha mousse. It had a light coffee cream top hiding a dark chocolate mousse and I think was my favourite of the night. 

The second fun thing I have been to was a port and sherry tasting by the wonderful Barry Starmore (All things wine and more ltd) and Jefferson Boss. What these two guys don't know about booze isn't worth knowing!
We started with a light sherry and worked through to the rich luscious Fernando de Castilla Pedro Ximinez which seemed a firm favourite before moving on to three lovely ports, including Krohn Dry White port which I ended up buying a bottle of ready for Christmas. 
I hope you are all enjoying the run up too and not finding it all too stressful x

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but it has all been a bit manic in the run up to the launch of my new book, more of which I hope to show you later.

I am afraid with everything going on here I must be on Santas naughty list as I haven't done any Christmas knitting this year, apart from a couple of rather selfish projects. I have just completed to beautiful Betty Mouat cowl by Kate Davies and I have just started a pair of socks. They are in red so hopefully that makes it a bit festive anyway!

An autumnal feast

Last night I decided to have an autumnal/Halloween feast with friends so thought I would share a few pictures.
The evening started with a Vampires Kiss cocktail (Chambord, champagne, frozen raspberries and spooky skull ice cubes!) and then with the help of my takented chef friend Alex we had quite a decadent spread.

The menu was Halloumi salad with pumpkin seeds, potato gratin dauphinoise, aubergines with dukkah topping, mushroom tarts, beef ribs in a coffee and chilli sauce, then chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!
Even better was that my friends unexpected came in fancy dress, so I thought I would share a few pictures and hope all your Halloween celebrations are as successful.